Panfishing

[Matth05]

I’m sure that many of us, including myself, that are into fishing now started out catching panfish (sunnies, perch, etc). I think that for the last few years I’ve really become so obsessed with trying catching bass that I often forget how exciting it is to just go out and catch some sunfish. I really only go panfishing on very rare occasion when the bass fishing gets tough, yet every time I do I have a blast. I’m going to make it a point this year to keep the bass rods at home more often, and instead take out my little light action rod. Thought I’d make this thread to share whatever I catch over the course of the next few months.

Yesterday my friend and I went out to what I believe is one of the better lakes in my area, mainly because it’s a bit harder to access. It’s about a half hour hiking trail to the lake. No big deal to me, I LOVE hiking. The past times I’ve went to this lake I was mostly focused on catching bass. I had no idea this lake was teeming with pumpkinseeds. We caught several of them. One of the prettiest natives imo.


And today I went out to one of my favorite river fishing spots where I usually target smallmouth. This time I was targeting redbreast sunfish. I see them all the time in this location and today a caught a couple. They have to be my favorite looking native sunfish species.

 

[Matth05]

Haven’t forgotten about this thread lol. A combination of consistent bad weather and being a bit busy around the house has stopped me from getting out as much as I would like. I’ve still been sticking to the panfishing plan and I’m absolutely loving it. A couple of nice catches from the past few weeks:
I’ve gotten my father hooked (pun fully intended ) onto the whole panfishing thing as well. We had a very nice bluegill day today at one of our favorite local lakes. Some beautiful and decent sized ones too.

 

[ken31cay]

So nice seeing this. Brings back memories of the years fishing as a kid. Thanks for posting.

 

[Hybridfish7]

I didn't read through your first message but given the pumpkinseeds and redbreasts I'm assuming you're somewhere in the northeast?

 

[Matth05]

I didn't read through your first message but given the pumpkinseeds and redbreasts I'm assuming you're somewhere in the northeast?

Yup, northern New Jersey to be exact.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Yup, northern New Jersey to be exact.

Excellent. If it were up to me I'd have ponds up here stocked with pumpkinseeds and redbreasts instead of bluegill and green sunfish. Something interesting and entertaining to catch, the pumpkinseeds get just as big, the redbreasts fight just as hard, and they're native to the area.

 

[Matth05]

Another round of photos. I should’ve name this the redbreast and pumpkinseed thread, cause that’s what I seem to catch the most of .
For anyone curious, you can get a glimpse of what I've been using basically this whole time. ZMAN just recently came out with a small line of panfish soft plastics that I’ve seriously fallen in love with. They're definitely a bit pricey for tiny soft plastics but I'm not exaggerating when I say they last forever.

 

[Matth05]

Been a while since I’ve posted posted anything on this thread, almost completely forgot about it. Have a few photos to share. I haven’t been going out fishing much since the last post, and when I did those days we’re not very successful. Yesterday though I decided to get out to a nearby lake after class. And had a good little time.
These gills were surprisingly shallow. We’ve had some pretty miserable weather here in the Northeast. Seemingly endless rainy days, mixed with the dropping temps of Fall time. Nonetheless had a great time out.

 

[Matth05]

Almost that time of the year. Temps have been in the 50s and 60s for the past week or so, and look to be staying that way for the time being. Was able to get on a few yellow perch today, they’re usually the first to get active this time of the year. When the temps are on the colder side I keep things as simple as possible, just some earthworms on a drop shot rig today.

 

[Matth05]

Couldn’t help myself, had to take out my medium light bass rod this week. Water temps have basically been hovering around 55F so I had a good feeling the river smallmouth would be cruising around. Sure enough they were out in full force, and I managed to catch a very nice sized smallie considering our smaller rivers here in NJ.

The perch continue to be extremely active, but haven’t seen too many sunfish pushing up shallow yet. I bet once that water hits 60 and stays at 60 that’ll start to change. Also have started to see smaller male largemouth move up shallow, prespawn I suspect.